Month: December 2016

The list of partners for the Women’s March on Washington is growing fast. Already, before the march even happens, it is teaching a lesson: the next major political and cultural coalition in the US is going to be women led.

It is going to be extremely diverse and highly intersectional. Some of the groups represented organize themselves around traditional U.S. demographic markers, e.g. race, religion, ethnicity. Others organize themselves around a traditional marker and a less usual one, e.g. gender AND tech. Others organize around a causes and interests not generally associated exclusively with a traditional demographic, such as stopping gun violence or ending poverty.

The scores of partners affiliating with the Women’s March have more in common than their opposition to the Trump administration and the Trump-Ryan-McConnell Republican Party. As you learn about each partner, you can see that the group shares a vision of the U.S., and the world. The vision is for a more just, more equitable, highly pluralist, very cosmopolitan polity and culture; a less dangerous, less violent, better educated, better informed citizenry.

This is the politics of The Women Led Coalition. It clearly honors the teachings and commitments of Hillary Clinton. But the reach and aspirations of The Women Led Coalition go beyond any single individual’s portfolio. It is not a coalition to serve a particular politician. It is a genuinely collective coalition, greater than the sum of its parts.

Welcome to the next great force in U.S. politics and culture: The Women Led Coalition.

Sustained collective action involves all sorts of efforts. Public gathering is and will be a strong force in the effort to resist Donald Trump’s administration, the Republican Party’s reactionary policies, and those who legitimate patriarchy, misogyny, racism, religious bigotry. Such gatherings do more than publicize the cause. They show those of us resisting that we are not alone, we stand together, part of something that we cannot do singly but that we can accomplish together.

I plan to update this post frequently. If you have information you recommend including please let me know via Twitter – @heidilifeldman.

We now have an accessible nonpartisan online tool for contacting the members of the Electoral College to request that they choose not to select Donald J. Trump to be the next President of the United States. #AskTheElectors permits you to write and post a public letter. It also provides a mechanism for keeping your letter private but emailing it to some electors.

The letter I posted is reprinted below.

Dear Elector,

My name is Heidi Li Feldman from Washington, DC.

Our country faces a crisis that crosses partisan lines. Donald Trump’s assumption of the office of the President poses foundational threats to our democratic republic, which is premised on the rule of law and commitment to our Constitution. If you are a Republican elector, I urge you not to cast your electoral vote for Mr. Trump. If you are a Democrat elector, I urge you to work with Republican electors to see if you can reach a feasible arrangement to cast your ballots so as achieve 270 votes for somebody other than Mr. Trump.

While the simplest solution appears to be for electors of both parties to cast their votes for the winner of the national popular vote, Hillary Rodham Clinton, I realize that electors in good faith from both parties might only be able to agree to try to select a compromise candidate. I also realize that if the Electoral College does not award 270 votes to any candidate, the selection of the President will be put to the House of Representatives. Regardless, the priority must be to prevent Mr. Trump from assuming office. You as a member of the Electoral College can act immediately and effectively to fulfill this imperative.

Mr. Trump poses unique threats to our country and its future: a President in violation of the Constitutional ban on emoluments from day one; that violation being an immediate ground for impeachment, which if considered by the House of Representatives, would be a long costly process; a President who shows every willingness to make private citizens critical of him targets of abuse by all and sundry; a President who is willing to corrupt the office of the Presidency for the financial gain of himself and his children; a President who may well be beholden to Russia for influencing the outcome of the general election of 2016; a President who has stated prior to taking office that, without gathering any further information, he refuses to believe information the CIA has regarding Russian influence on the general election; a President who is in known debt to a German bank and may well be in debt to other foreign banks, governments, and entities, and therefore subject to pressure and manipulation from many countries or their nationals.

This list is lengthy but not complete. It highlights some of the egregious, nonpartisan dangers we face if the Electoral College selects Mr. Trump to be President of the United States of America. For the good of the country, perhaps for the very survival of our constitutional republic, I ask you to fulfill the role the U.S. Constitution assigns you in its system of checks and balances. You have the legal authority to exercise your conscientious judgment and to refuse to select as President an individual who presents such clear and present danger to the United States of America.

You face a heavy responsibility, I know, asked to take steps no Electors in modern times have had to take. For some of you, voting your conscience, and accepting the U.S. Constitution’s grant of authority to you, requires that you act contrary to state law or to a pledge you made to your state’s Democratic or Republican State Party. So I do not make my request to you lightly. I do not make it simply because I disagree with Mr. Trump’s policies or do not like his style. I make it because I believe that you, and your fellow electors, are our best line of defense against putting in office a candidate uniquely and tremendously dangerous to our nation.

While it is you who will have to bear most personally negative consequences of a decision to deviate from your state’s popular vote, please know that I will dedicate my time, my expertise, and my money to making sure any such consequences are as minimal as possible. Millions of your fellow Americans will do likewise, I am convinced.

In the meantime, I repeat here my already public offer to assist any elector debating how to cast his or her electoral vote. I am also willing to help electors get in touch with one another so they can deliberate collectively prior to December 19, 2016.

Thank you for your time and consideration, I appreciate and respect the role you serve in our electoral process.